Keeping Professional Learning Relevant and Current

How do you keep professional learning relevant and current?

I'm Morgan Cave, Apple Distinguished Educator (2019) and Director of Instructional Technology at Richardson ISD, right outside of Dallas, TX. I've been a public educator since 2005, when I started as a second grade teacher. A love for professional learning, both as a participant and facilitator, is what brought me out of the classroom and into Instructional Technology back in 2017. It is a highlight of my role to work alongside my team of instructional technology specialists, the iTeam, to design learning experiences for teachers that transform learning for students.

As a former teacher, I deeply believe that everything we provide for teachers has to be relevant and timely. If they can't turn around and use it right away or address a current challenge, if it doesn't align with their goals, we have lost an opportunity and we have let our teachers down. Whether we are leading a full day of learning in our year long cohorts (#RISDAIM and #RISDTransform), meeting with a group after school, or coaching teachers in PLCs, we focus on key components to ensure that we provide high quality professional learning experiences:

🔑 Align technology best practices & expertise to campus and district initiatives. How does the technology or the strategy support existing priorities so that staff aren't being asked to focus on "one more thing"? How does this new learning become part of the work that is already underway? Some examples for us would be our district's Graduate Profile and our Board of Trustees' North Star Goal, and aligning to these keeps our sessions relevant, current, and impactful. This tenet also applies to new and emerging technology - while we as IT professionals may jump right in, balancing new technology with best practices & pedagogy ensures that we are current AND relevant when delivering professional learning.

🔑 Feedback is essential. If your goal is to deliver relevant professional learning, feedback is a must. As intentional and thoughtful as your design can be, participant feedback lets you know where you hit the mark, and where you didn't. Good questions ensure that the feedback is actionable. We like to use a form with a rating scale and only a handful of questions - if it is too long, teachers won't complete it. We leave optional open text after each question for further details. And of course, make sure you take time to review and consider feedback. We like to do this as a team and discuss what we might do differently. Sometimes after constructive feedback, we determine that making changes will change our intended outcomes, so we stay the course and remember in the future to speak to the why behind our design and methods. And this leads me to...

🔑 Be flexible and adaptive. While our vision for supporting teachers in designing engaging learning experiences for students that leverage technology doesn't change, our strategies, our examples, and our structure might. Oftentimes, this means adjusting based on feedback and experience, especially after the first time we run a session. Just like teaching, there are times in the middle of the lesson when you know that what you planned needs to be tweaked for your learners. Sometimes it's the technology itself that throws us a new curveball, a district or campus event, or even simply having a pulse on the current campus climate. Staying true to our goals while being open to changes that improve the experience is a cornerstone of success.

This video is an end of year reflection video, story spine style, from our 2023-34 #RISDAIM elementary teacher technology cohort. The cohort just wrapped up its 4th year and is one of our larger professional learning endeavors. Each year looks different, as we strive to adapt and change to stay relevant and current!

As our school year comes to an end this week, I am already mapping out and strategizing professional learning for 24-25. And yet, it's just a loosely sketched blueprint. It will change and gain more details as we continue in our work next school year.

How do you keep professional learning relevant and current?